Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 7500972" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 210Majerion was finding that even greater invisibility was not enough to let him escape his foes.  The two altered Tenders continued to press him no matter how much he tried to escape.  Either they could somehow sense him through the cloak provided by his spell, or they were able to track the soft sounds of his boots or the subtle indents they made on the turf.Either way, he was barely keeping ahead of them.  His rapier had gotten stuck in the body of the first, torn from his grasp.  If the thing was hindered by having a three-foot shaft of steel jutting from its body, it didn’t give any sign of it.  With the need to concentrate on his spell he couldn’t work any major magics, not that his efforts had proven very effective thus far.  He was aware of the fighting to either side of him, but it didn’t look like any of his companions were in any shape to help him.As a last desperate move, he spun and broke toward the base of the tree, seeking the cover of the root structures there.  He almost got clear, but a loud eruption of earth to his right startled him.  A piece of rock caromed off his head, and he fell to the ground.  He recoiled in revulsion at the sight of the tiny shoots of green trying to twist around his fingers.Wait.  Fingers.  He was no longer…That was all the thought he managed to put together before a green boot slammed into his face.Shreskra moved slowly, caught in a daze as she emerged from the densely woven roots of the Elden Tree.  She looked down at her hands.  They were covered in bright red blood.  More blood slicked the length of her sword.  The weapon was called Starsteel, and it had been passed down in her family for ten generations.Now it was covered with the blood of the elf that she had just murdered.A sound drew her head up, and she was jolted back into full awareness by what she saw in front of her.  A desperate battle filled the druid’s grove.  She could see the outsiders engaged in battle some distance away, but her attention was drawn to what was happening not ten paces distant.Loriellan was down, the corrupted form of Razelle standing above him.  Tenaille was also down, but Darethan was standing over her, protecting her from the awakened tree that was trying to crush both of them.  Even as she watched the elf swung his dagger at the monstrous thing’s trunk, inflicting little damage.  The tree in turn slashed out at Darethan, delivering a solid blow that drove him to the ground, almost on top of his fallen companion.The tree reared up, a foot made up of tangled roots poised to crush both of them.Shreskra could not remember moving, or even deciding to move, but suddenly she was there, Starsteel sweeping up to meet the descending limb.  The blade carved though roots and trunk alike, shearing off a large segment of the tree’s substance.  It stumbled to the side, off-balance, but quickly recovered and slashed down at her with the same big branch that had felled Darethan.  She met that attack as well, nearly severing the thick branch with one massive blow.  The tree reared back but she pressed it, thrusting the point of her sword through a gap in the shell of bark into its body.  All that was in there was hard wood, but she felt something, a brief tremor that shot up the length of the blade and through her body.  The tree fell over onto its back and ceased moving.Shreskra looked over to see that the Razelle-creature was straddling Loriellan, the elf’s throat clutched in its grasp.  She could clearly see hints of movement as the growths that sprouted from its hands burrowed into his flesh.  He was unconscious, perhaps dying, but his body twitched as those tendrils worked their way deeper into his body.“This isn’t what I wanted,” she said.  She brought her sword up.  “Release him.”The blank eyes met hers for a long moment, and then the creature that had been a Ranger dropped Loriellan and started toward her.Majerion barely clung to consciousness.  He was dimly aware of something standing over him, and he wondered why he wasn’t yet dead.  There were noises nearby, voices, maybe, but he couldn’t make them out through the fog that hung over his senses.  His mouth felt numb and he idly wondered if he’d lost any teeth.Then a hand reached down and pulled him to his feet.  He blinked and realized that it was Embrae.  The monk didn’t say anything, she just turned and fired a pulse of light from her hand that almost blinded the bard.  He swayed and somehow managed to stay upright.When he could see again the elf woman was gone, replaced by the dwarf.  He looked a sight, his robe shredded and bloody, one side of his face smeared with blood from a gash that had been torn open just above his left eye.  He pushed something into Majerion’s hands.  Even in his current state he recognized it at once: it was his lyre.“You’re going to have to take care of yourself!” the dwarf shouted at him.  “We’re bloody busy!”  Without waiting for a response, he spun into a kick that drove back a Tender whose outstretched fingers had nearly closed on the bard’s throat.Majerion’s hands instinctively found the proper places, and he began to play.A massive blast of sound shook the grove.  The canopy of the great tree shuddered as the thunderwave reverberated off the massive trunk.  A portion of the sickly growth that covered the lower part of the tree had sloughed away, forming a noisome heap of matter at its base.  But the part that held the Druid remained intact above.Glori tore herself from the roots that held her and turned to face Jakan.  The rogue druid had been knocked back by the pulse from her spell, but he did not look to be seriously hurt.  His cloak fell away as he straightened, revealing thin, almost gaunt features.  His skin was as pale as fresh milk, matched by hair that almost looked like spun silver.  But there was a fire burning in his eyes, an intensity that Glori immediately recognized as a blend of inspiration and madness.Out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of something else: a familiar figure that had crawled up out of the tangle of roots on the other side of the tainted streak.  She could see that he’d left a trail of blood behind him.  But she couldn’t look that way without giving him away to Jakan.“We’re here to put an end to your plans,” she said, stepping forward to face the pale elf, drawing his attention to her.“Foolish half-breed child,” Jakan hissed.  “Soon your friends will join the guardians of this grove.”  He made a broad gesture behind him, but all Glori could see was that the battle was still going on.  She thought she heard Kosk’s voice, but it was overpowered by the stomp of the awakened trees and the loud swish of branches being swept back and forth.  “You, I may keep alive for a time.  He will be interested in you, I think.”“Who are you talking about?” she asked.  “Someone else pulling your strings, eh?” She knew she had to keep him busy, though the thought of her friends being killed while she stood here bantering with the elf almost drove her to a reckless attack.  But the druid’s spell had almost killed her, and she knew that she could not withstand another similar assault.From the look on Jakan’s face, he knew it as well.  “The power you see here is mine,” he said.  “Soon all of the energy stored in the Reserve will belong to me, and then the fools in Tal Nadesh will bow to the true power within the elvish nation.”“It all just comes down to power, doesn’t it,” she said.  She softly strummed her lyre as she spoke, a regular cadence that let her trickle healing energy into her stricken body.  She stepped away from the root mass, drawing his attention further away from the Tender who was still crawling slowly toward the base of the tree.A soft creak was the only warning she got.  She dove forward just as a branch as thick around as her waist descended from the canopy, slamming into the ground where she’d been standing.  As it snapped back up twigs slashed at her face, adding fresh scratches to her tally but doing little real damage.  Had it connected, she’d be lying broken on the ground, she knew.“Is that the best you can do?” she taunted.Jakan laughed.  “No,” he said.  “No indeed.”He extended his arms and Glori tensed again, expecting another spell attack.  But instead the slender elf’s form began to shift.  His arms thickened and grew longer, hair sprouting from the pale flesh.  His fingernails extended and became sharp points.  His back peaked as the curve in his spine grew more pronounced, and he gained several inches of height.  Worst of all was his face, which stretched out until the fearsome visage of a primal beast confronted her.The transformation complete, the druid let out a sound that was half manic laugh, half wild growl, then he leapt to attack.</blockquote>

Verification